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Journalist released after questioning

    ABIDJAN

    An international journalist arrested on Monday in southwestern Cote d'Ivoire has been released after hours of questioning, Reporters sans Frontieres (RSF) reported on Tuesday.

    Anne Boher, a French journalist with Reuters News Agency, was arrested in the port city of San Pedro and driven to Abidjan for questioning, according to state-owned Radio Cote d'Ivoire, which accused her of being a "spy" for the Patriotic Movement of Cote d'Ivoire (MPCI).

    [The MPCI - Mouvement patriotique de Cote d'Ivoire - is the main rebel group in the country. It operates mainly in the north and northwest.]

    RSF said she was released on Tuesday. It condemned the arrest and urged the Ivorian authorities to respect press freedom and allow journalists to work without being hassled.

    In related news, the Peace and Justice Movement (MJP - Mouvement pour la Justice et la Paix), one of two armed movements operating in western Cote d'Ivoire, said that a skirmish on Monday between the MJP and French soldiers
    was an isolated act committed by renegade elements, AFP reported on Tuesday.

    The fighting, which left nine French soldiers wounded, was an "act of sabotage with a view to compromising the meeting in Paris, of which we are in favour," AFP quoted an MJP official as saying.

    He was referring to a proposed meeting to be held in Paris on 15
    January between Cote d'Ivoire's main political parties and rebel groups. The MPCI and the MJP have agreed in principle to attend the meeting.

    This article was produced by IRIN News while it was part of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. Please send queries on copyright or liability to the UN. For more information: https://shop.un.org/rights-permissions

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